Although the season didn’t end the way the Cometbots had hoped, the Halifax County High School robotics team members are holding their heads high and calling it a successful run landing them 18th out of 127 teams in the district.
The Comebots started the FIRST World Competition in Detroit, Michigan, on a high note ending Thursday with a record of 3-1.
They won their first match, before losing their second due to damages to their robot.
“We were damaged in our second match when we collided with an alliance partner during the sandstorm period, in which we drive using only cameras on board our robot. We managed to make some quick repairs and recovered in the next match,” said Adam Reeves, robotics instructor.
They went on to win their next two matches.
Even though their first qualification match on Friday was close with a score of 63 to 60, the Cometbots ultimately lost alongside their alliance with Team 7850 of Coon Rapids, Minnesota, and Team 5934 of DeKalb, Illinois.
The team went on to lose the next five qualification matches and did not make it to the playoffs.
“We didn’t make it to the playoffs, but we were still a pretty successful team. We learned a lot, and two teams from our district made it to the Einstein Field. It was real exciting cheering for them,” said Reeves.
Even though they did not make it to the playoffs, the Cometbots had the best season they’ve ever had, Reeves said.
“I hope to continue to build our team,” he said. “I’m looking to continue training and expanding our community outreach to hopefully inspire more young people. We’re hoping to put on more robot demonstrations to get our children excited about science and technology.”
In the end, the Cometbots ranked 18th out of the FIRST Chesapeake District of 127 teams. The team also ranked 58 out of 68 teams in the Tesla subdivision.
The FIRST World Competition in Detroit, Michigan, has subdivisions including Achimedes, Carson, Curie, Daly, Darwin and Tesla.
“In addition, they attended conferences learned how to improve our robots, our team and our community involvement in STEM. We want to thank all the organizations and people that helped make this event possible for us,” said Reeves.
Follow Team 977 Cometbots on Facebook for future updates.
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